HomelandSecurityLeader.com

From Al Jazeera

Iraq’s prime minister has for the first time publicly called for a US troop withdrawal timetable.

Nuri al-Maliki said on Monday that a military agreement the two countries are negotiating should include provisions for the withdrawal of American troops.

In a meeting with Arab ambassadors in the United Arab Emirates on Monday, al-Maliki said Iraq had proposed a short-term interim memorandum of agreement rather than the more formal status of forces agreement the two sides have been negotiating.

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Wednesday, July 9, 2008 @ 10am
311 Cannon House Office Building

Hearing: “The Challenge of Protecting Mass Gatherings in a Post-9/11 World.”
• Full Committee

Witnesses (partial):
Robert B. Stephan, Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection, Department of Homeland Security
Roger T. Rufe, Jr., Director, Operations Coordination Division, Department of Homeland Security
Thomas H. Blackwell, MD, Medical Director, MEDIC: Mecklenburg Emergency Medical Services Agency, Charlotte, North Carolina
Scott McCartney, Program Manager/Exercise Planner, Large Stadium Initiative, Governor’s Office of Homeland Security, Sacramento, California; Sergeant, Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department
Douglas Reynolds, Director of Security, Mall of America, Bloomington, Minnesota

There will be a webcast of this hearing.

No Official Events Announced

10:30 AM MDT  Secretary Michael Chertoff will deliver remarks to members and guests of the Regional Four Corners Homeland Security Coalition (Southern Ute Indian Tribal Headquarters, Ignacio, CO).

No Official Events Announced.

10:00 AM MDT  U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Ralph Basham will testify before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee at a hearing entitled “Securing the Northern Border: Views from the Front Lines” (Havre, MT)

No Official Events Announced.

1:00 PM EDT  US-VISIT Director Robert Mocny will deliver remarks at the Land Border Biometric Exit Industry Day (Arlington, VA).

From TheNewYorker.com, by Seymour M. Hersh

Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country’s religious leadership. The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran’s suspected nuclear-weapons program.

Clandestine operations against Iran are not new. United States Special Operations Forces have been conducting cross-border operations from southern Iraq, with Presidential authorization, since last year. These have included seizing members of Al Quds, the commando arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, and taking them to Iraq for interrogation, and the pursuit of “high-value targets” in the President’s war on terror, who may be captured or killed. But the scale and the scope of the operations in Iran, which involve the Central Intelligence Agency and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), have now been significantly expanded, according to the current and former officials. Many of these activities are not specified in the new Finding, and some congressional leaders have had serious questions about their nature.

Under federal law, a Presidential Finding, which is highly classified, must be issued when a covert intelligence operation gets under way and, at a minimum, must be made known to Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and the Senate and to the ranking members of their respective intelligence committees—the so-called Gang of Eight. Money for the operation can then be reprogrammed from previous appropriations, as needed, by the relevant congressional committees, which also can be briefed.

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11:00 AM EDT  Secretary Chertoff will deliver the opening remarks at the Heritage Foundation’s event entitled Homeland Security, Privacy and Civil Liberties: A Five Year Review Commemoration (Washington, DC).
 
11:30 AM EDT  Chief Privacy Officer Hugo Teufel III  and Officer for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Daniel W. Sutherland will participate in a panel discussion at the Heritage Foundation’s event entitled Homeland Security, Privacy and Civil Liberties: A Five Year Review Commemoration (Washington, DC).

1:00 PM EDT  U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Acting Director Jonathan Scharfen will participate in a media availability during his visit to the Atlanta Field and District offices on E-Verify, FBI name check issues, processing improvements, transformation, and the new citizenship test (USCIS Atlanta District Office).